Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-06-09
THE LEASE LAW.
Devised by the BuIIIonaires to Perpetuats
Their Business,
NCheetie Panhandle

MCbeetie Panhandle,
The Panhandle cattlemen have, Il IS reported
to the Attorney General, cut down their fences,
II is supposed TO show disposition to obey
the Enclosure act; but It is stated on good au-
thority that the drift fences, stretching from
east to west entirely across the Panhandle,
have not been removed. This may indicate a
pool of all the cattle companies between these
drift fences, which would require no fences
between pastures, and so escape prosecution
which the present Attorney General would in
sttute, However, when the new law goes into
effect the caLtlemen will have to lease or leave.
The above is part of dispatch from
Austin, appearing in the Dallas News,
and Austin is the capitol of the Stage. As
to knowledge of gtfsiTs and conditions of
our Panhandle and the characteristics Of
its people, to the end of proper and equit-
able government, the Austin administra
tion had ss fifty be set to govern the
Congo country. And the metropolitan
press Of cur state constantly betrays an
ignorance in regard to us Gs dense; and
considering its position, opportunities and
suppossble prediction for truth and en-
| lightenment, even more ineXcusabIe. The
cattle business of the Panhandle assumed
| syndicate and "bsrOn' proportions be-
cause that condition was forced by the
states lease law. And the lease law was
, the offspring OF the barOn's brain, by his
superior Intelligence and energy (and
money! foiSted upon the state as proper
and healthy child because, forsoothy it
was TO save ye quidnunc OF the piney
woods s few cents annually in sC93Ol
| Tax. The stoCkmen were not actuated in
the premises by motives other than move
men in ali branches OF business snd
trade-the perpetuatiOn Of their own bus
mess, because it was their own, and that
they, in many instances, believed it the
only one that would ever be profitable
over 4 great portion of the state. And
the means they took to the end would
not, as such things go, be considered dis
, honorable or 9 matter Of surprise IT, the
same opportunity presenting, they or
their like had been used by men repre-
senting any Industry. The great "cattIe
baron" saw the encroachments OF
lesser stock and farmers into mis-
big grass country, and that with them he
musc prove numerically and politically
weak, and unless the tide were stemmed
he and his great business must get out. |
The establishment of his business had
cost him years Of care and labor and i'm !
mense sums of money, and he knew mis-
industry to be legitimate and honorable, |
and naturally didn't want to get out. He |
had to do something, and he did it. In |
the lease law he gave US something which |
must challenge the admiration of the !
world at his keen intelligence and fore |
sight and in getting mis- measure past q |
Legislative body deeply and unreasoningly |
preJudiceG against him and his interests, |
displayed an aptitude for the finesse of |
diplomacy whose contemplation would |
make the shrewdest politician go
away and weep at his own |
feeble and blind cropping. And
it came to pass that all that part of |
the state where the voting power and the
stocBman's enemies are, with vigor and |
determination demanded that the "bul-
lionaire" be compelled to pay for "the
cnildren's grass But time has proven
that the stockman overreached himself,
and miscalculated the strength of mis-
foundation. His aim and hope was for
an absolute lease during term of years,
which Judgment perfectly cool and IN
biased would have told him never could
be; and the law which he accepted as ga
starter" and with whose conditions he
would have complied in good faith, if ne
mad been permitted, has been unsatisfaC-
tory to himself and calamitous to his
interests in every way. He built hundreds
OF miles OF fence at a cost of $500 per
mile; he fenced in good faith while his
applications" were before the land
board, and that beard by Cgptious and ar
bitrary rulings prevented his obtaining
the lease and left MIN at the mercy of the
law against fencing.
The cattlemen have been entitled TO
the use of the grass on the western
ranges, free of charge to them save the
taxes on their herds, because they have
brought order and prosperity where in the
nature of things less degree of strength
and energy could not have worked the re-
suit. They have made possible local gov
ernments in al the westesn counties;
and except the single instance of their
lease law having been distorted and hurled
against them, have adhered to and upheld
every law of the state. And whatever
their faults as 8 class may be, as citizens
they are certainly not deserving the abuse
being heaped upon them for non-compli-
ance with the provisions of q law that is
q wonder of legislation.
If our state government and press
were better informed they would know
thst the great stOCkman and syndicate
have seen the sure advance of the inevi-
table, and will not pool or conspire 10
defeat the law. Many of the fences are
already down, and the balance will come in
time to meet a compliance with the law.
There never was but one drift fence
across the Panhandle, and that was up
1T the Neutral Strip, made to prevent the
cattle OF outside barbarians from coming
IN by the thousands to eat the sacred
grass of "the children" The possession
Of more OF manly honor and citizen in
tegrity down in the state would make
that region quicker to perceive those
qualities in the Panhandle and its much
abused and misrepresented "bullion-
lire"